Everyone’s heard of the many changes at LP this year: the Yondr pouches, homerooms, the new middle school building. But did you hear about the removal of LI blocks?
Since its first year of existence, Lincoln Park has offered LI blocks throughout the school day, which were supervised by an academic teacher, and allowed students to work on their respective LI courses during school hours.
Aaron Johnson, a junior theatre major from New Brighton who had an LI block during school, said that his experience “was peaceful, until it was abruptly taken.” He said that the removal of LI blocks “will create a lot more stress for people taking an LI currently.”
What is an LI?
LI stands for Lincoln Interactive and is a series of online courses developed by a company called Lincoln Learning Solutions. This company has provided an online curriculum to Lincoln Park since the school’s founding in 2006. It also provides curriculum to other schools such as PA Cyber.
In the past, LI blocks were often used to fill in holes in students’ schedules. For example, if a student had an arts class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they might be able to take an LI block on Tuesdays and Thursdays to complete their schedule with an academic class.
Since there was no specified number of days that a student needed to take an LI block, these blocks were useful in solving scheduling problems. LI blocks no longer being an option to solve these scheduling issues, has made academic classes more crowded as an effect.
For many students, the removal of LI blocks has meant losing valuable time to manage their workload. Soleil Giles, a senior writing and publishing major from Ambridge, said, “It was useful time to spend working on other classes and ensured I had time for extracurricular activities like my job. It was necessary decompression time.”
While students mostly expressed disappointment, teachers had varied opinions about the LI blocks. Melissa Holman, the director of the Music Department, noted, “From a teacher standpoint, I don’t know how many students were using that time to work on their LI. I’m sure some students were, but I feel like a lot weren’t using that time specifically for their LI.”
Señora Knowles, a teacher in the Spanish department, shared a different experience, stating, “I had a generally good experience proctoring LI blocks. Some students used it to get work for other classes done, or as a rest period. But with dedicated LI blocks gone, more people will be taking in-person classes.”
On the other hand, Desirea Hairston, an English teacher, recounted her experiences with LI blocks as chaotic at times. “I had a lot of kids who would just sleep. It depended on the age group. Some were more motivated than others,” she explained. “Sometimes, I had to cover other classes during my LI block, which could create chaos.
“My LI kids would get frustrated with these covered classes because they’d be trying to work in a normally quiet space that suddenly became loud.”
The SIREN Staff–Felicity Portoulas, Ambyr Clay, Elena Cable, Veda Poling, Lily Fortier, Hailey Ake, Aydden Yope, Adrien Emler–also contributed.
